Auckland Grammar were too strong for the New Plymouth boys in their semi-final game at the BBNZ Secondary Schools National tournament in Palmerston North on Friday.

Auckland Grammar drew on their experience from last year's Nationals, where they came 3^rd behind Fraser High and Mana College, and came out firing right from the tip off. Their big men rattled the New Plymouth rookies with a series of offensive boards and three slam dunks in quick succession.

New Plymouth did their best to contain them on D and held Grammar to a 25-17 lead at the end of period 1. By half time Grammar had stretched this to a 20 point spread up 43-23 holding New Plymouth to six points in the quarter.

New Plymouth began to stem the tide in the third period but the damage was done with Grammar staying ahead 59-38 as they went into the fourth. The boys had a run in the last quarter closing the margin to 14 but when captain Matt Wallace went off with his 5^th foul the game was all but over.

Grammar did their homework and effectively shut down New Plymouth’s scoring power with only Matt Wallace scoring in double figures.

Auckland Grammar 71 (James Ashby 19, Reuben Te Rangi & Nipuna Mohottige 13) New Plymouth Boys 55 (Mathew Wallace 18, Lachlan Fenwick 7)

New Plymouth face Westlake High School on Saturday in the play off for 3rd and 4th position. Similar to New Plymouth, Westlake were never in their game against Rosmini High and went down 81-63. At one stage they were 30 points behind but clawed this back through a series of Rosmini errors in the fourth period.

Rosmini pretty much only go five deep and it will be interesting to see how they go against Grammar in the final scheduled for Saturday afternoon.